Credit Card Fees - Relief in site?

This has been a HOT topic on another thread so lets hope that this Settlement will bring about some relief in our merchant fees in the future... Here are some important excerpts from the article:

"Visa, MasterCard and the nation's biggest banks have agreed to pay $7.3 billion to millions of merchants to end a seven-year dispute over credit card “swipe” fees. The settlement includes at least $6.05 billion in payments to some 7 million merchants...."

" "Over time, the reforms induced by this case and in this settlement should help reduce card-acceptance costs to merchants, which in turn will result in lower prices for all consumers," said K. Craig Wildfang, a partner at Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, and co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs."

"The settlement agreement also would give merchants new rights to impose a surcharge on credit transactions, ..... “Really it’s a discount that the merchants are now allowed to offer for the less expensive form of payments,” he [attorney Martin Lueck] said. He also said merchants would for the first time be allowed to disclose how much it costs them to accept credit cards."

And in another article I read on the same topic, it provided this bit of information:

According to the National Retail Federation, the nation's largest retail group, swipe fees costs for stores total about $30 billion per year.

I believe this is more for RETAIL stores but I do think this sends a message that CC companies need to rethink how they are gouging merchants. Lets hope the hear the message LOUD and clear!

To confirm the date, we charge payment in full for ONE to THREE nights and 50% down payment for FOUR nights or more. They pay this via Paypal, directly from pay buttons on our website or I invoice them through Paypal.

The problem I have is how do you RE-charge the credit card (supplied and copied upon check in) if damages were made, like smoking in the room which incurred a $175.00 fee? The guest also signed (and was given a copy) of the renter's rules stating the "no smoking policy" and fees attached if this rule was broken.

Does anyone have a suggestion of a good credit card processing company (not Square or Intuit because I do not have a Smartphone). Paypal will not work on this problem. I would like a company with low processing and monthly fees.

I got an iPhone so I could use Square abd I think it was worth the iPhone charges - the things I have been able to do with the iPhone (like check email when my Internet was down for 3 days) and the money I saved in Nov-Dec alone (no transactions when each month would have been $22.90 before) have made it worth it. Whether Square would help with your smoking problem I do not know other than you would have just punched in the numbers (3.5% but better than nothing).

I doubt it. From what I understand they will let you pass on the CC charges to the end customer if you are one of the states that doesn't forbid this. The question is, will your competitor do this? Also, some fees can't be directly attributed to the customer, like the new fee that isn't directly a percentage per customer.

So are you going to start charging your CC customers an extra 1.5%, versus those paying in cash?

I love debit, I pay just 6 cents a transaction. But that applies only to guests from my own country. Visa/MC debit are considered credit cards here, always (by law).

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A few years ago a local organization tacked a 4% surcharge on if you used a cc. I think more people will go the opposite and charge less for cash. We figured the cancellation fee we charge will cover most of the 'card not present' charges we incur processing the deposit. The rest is just business as usual.

Until now, it was a violation of the ToS to add a surcharge or a minimum. Basically this will allow it. I don't know, going back to cash has it's disadvantages as well... all that cash on hand and to deposit.